نشریه معرفت ادیان
سال ششم شماره 1 (پیاپی 21، زمستان 1393)

Joseph of Cyprus, which is commonly known as Barnabas is not among the twelve Disciples of Christ, but because of his unique status in propagation of primary Christianity among the non-Jewish, he, like Paul, is considered as one of the messengers and his name is mentioned 33 times in the New Testament. Although he, as in Christian tradition, wrote the Bible, neither Christians nor Moslems had access to his Bible up to the thirteenth century. In recent centuries, a copy ascribed to Barnabas was published and, like the Quran, it denies the Trinity and the Crucifixion and it has glad tidings about the coming of the Last Prophet. He believes that the words’’ There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet’’ are written above the entrance of paradise. Therefore, this view attracted the attention of a group of Muslim scholars. This paper first gives an idea about who Barnabas is and a historical account of his Bible, and then points out to the contradictions between the religious belifs of this Bible and those of the Holy Quran. For example, according to Barabas’ Bible man is God’s child and he is by nature sinful. Blasphemous sins and love are attributed to prophets including Abraham, Aaron, Job, and excluding Jesus. This Bible refers to, 144000 prophets and states that there are ten Gehennas, seven strata of hell and nine heavens and that angels commit sins and disobey, and the envoys of punishment are not angels but satans.

Irenaeus is a church father who introduced a special interpretation of original sin. He believes that creation passes through two stages and man, at the beginning of creation had a weak nature and was at the initial stages of growth and perfection. Despite the teachings of the Word of God, Adam was not perfect when he was in heaven, and the Devil, who was aware of man's weak nature, urged Adam and Eve to disobey God's command. Their eating from the forbidden tree was behind their coming to this world, their attainment of perfection and their similarity to God. Being similar to God is the minor aspect of creation. Death this world is the ascribed to sinfulness and disobedience, the outcome of which is eternal, sinfulness and disobedience. Of course, Adam's sin is the worst kind of sin because it was followed by remorse and repentance. Thus man is favored with God's mercy. Irenaeus considers Christ’s existence as the reason for creation, not as a response to the sin of Adam. In fact, he regards Jesus Christ as the center of universe and the role of Adam is to pave the way for Christ. The unity between Christ and God has restored the friendship which was lost by Adam.

Using a descriptive-analytical method, this study helps us to gain a deep understanding of Benedict‘s monasticism and it makes explicit his relation with Christian mysticism in order to have a clear idea about this aspect of Catholic Christianity. The paper deals with character of the father of Christian monasticism in the West, i.e. Saint Benedict of Nurcia (480-547), by referring to his book of Rules.This paper first gives a clear account of Benedict and then investigates his mysticism. To this end, it includes, in addition to the definition and a review of the main components of mysticism and monasticism also the two main elements of mysticism in the teachings of Benedict, i.e. mystical vision of God and tendency towards unity, are examined and proved. Finally, given the relationship between mysticism, monasticism and the views of Benedict’s followers and commentators of Benedict’s “rules", the author concludes that the definition of "mystic" applies to the monastic Benedict.

One of the areas of interdisciplinary research on culture is the study of the relationship between religion and art. Among the religious movements, "Protestantism" has assumed especial importance due to its relation with the" religious reform movement". In this cultural context, "expressionism" represents one of the most important stages of the evolution of forms of art. Using a library-based method, this paper seeks to investigate the common aspects and relations between these two movements. The theoretical foundations were compared in the form of a case study with the movie “Dr. Calgary’s Work Room" (1920). The research results show that expressionism and Protestantism have common aspects in one general aspect and in three particular aspects. Thus, it is possible to give religious interpretations works of art. The interaction among religion, culture and art on the basis of an existential understanding of religion is the common aspect in this relationship. Moreover, the historical-cultural commonalities, an expressive element and a dark tension-making content in Expressionism the similar of which is found in Protestant theology, indicate the remarkable aspects of this relationship.

The influence of religions on each other has always been a matter of dispute between the researchers in the field of religious studies scholars. One of the topics in religion which has been the special concern of scholars is the influence of Zoroastrian beliefs on Judaism in the era of Babylonian Captivity. Most scholars believe that Judaism has been influenced by the teachings of Zoroastrianism. Others reject this view. Still others express their uncertainty about it. The first group of researchers believes that the Resurrection, the belief in the promised Savior, angelology and general final judgment are among the teachings which have been taken from Zoroastrianism.After investigating the existing views, this paper puts forward that this kind of influence is natural and due to the divine-based roots of each of the two religions and the existence of Israelites’ prophets, we cannot ascribe the stated instances to the influence of Zoroastrianism on Judaism.

In Zoroastrianism, which considers this world as a place where good creatures of Ormazd are subject to the Devil’s attacks, women’s identity and existence enjoy special status. On one hand, Mazda has created woman with a pure and, like man she has free will and is responsible for what she does. On the other hand, because woman has some feminine characteristics, is physically vulnerable and is subject to the Devil’s attack; whenever has a the period she has to be apart from the other members of family and observe strict rules. This special view about woman, that is, considering her as a vulnerable creature and man as the best creature of Ormazd to the extent that some texts consider her as a parasite and inferior to man and procreation as the only reason of her creation. Using a descriptive-analysis method, and referring to ancient Avesta and Pahlavi sources and to the Zoroastrian scientific works of pioneer researchers, this library-based study first presents an overview of the ontology of Zoroastrianism and then investigates the different views about the status of women in Zoroastrian dual creation. In conclusion, there are two views about women in the texts and tradition of Zoroastrianism: positive and negative The positive view is found in the texts and ancient literature of Zoroastrianism and the negative view is found in Pahlavi tradition and texts, that is, the recent texts related to the Sasanian period. The dissociation of Zoroastrianism from its founder and the influence of significant deviant thought on the religious literature of this religion made Zoroastrian priests develop about women and the negative view of Gnostics and manichaeanism should be taken in to consideration, too.

The present paper is a criticism over the article "the similarity between monotheistic religions; distortion of the Bible and the Quran" which was published in "Marifat-i Adyan" volume NO. 19. The author of the published article considered the given answers to the doubt "the verbal distortion of the Quran based on the Hadith about the similarities of nations" as incomplete. To this end, the author gives a new answer to this doubt, but for furthering more explanation and criticizing the other answers, the critic believes that, the writer made some points which are not complete. Therefore after giving an explanation, the critic mentions the author’s incomplete points respectively and at the end he offers the results of his comments.